Charlie Payne: Assignment 9.

One of my most fundamental beliefs is that war and violence are not moral, necessary, intelligent, or progressive. It pains me to think that people believe the death penalty is just, let alone that the nuclear attack on Hiroshima was necessary, or showed support for the Vietnam War. There is always a peaceful alternative. Take the Civil War for example, and its causes. Were blacks treated fairly by whites in the years to come? It wasn't until Martin Luther King Jr and his nonviolent methods of protest that we came even close to equality. What's disgusting to me is how people not only believe in the effectiveness of war, but that our culture glorifies war as being heroic and unifying, or an affirmation of power. Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, The Thin Red Line, and slews of other films seem to hit the nail on the head for me: war is foolish, brutal, and barbaric.